Early this morning, Amy was interviewed on BBC World Service’s Newsday about bed ned misuse on Lake Tanganyika. Listen here!
The LTFHC is thrilled that recognition of the need for further research into bed net misuse in water based communities is becoming more widespread. Thank you again to Jeffrey Gettleman and the New York Times for sharing this important story and our research on the topic.
This past weekend, LTFHC Founder and CEO Dr. Amy Lehman presented a keynote address to over 800 undergraduates at the University of Chicago’s Taking the Next Steps event. During her speech, Amy shared her journey to establish the organization and what allows her to do her work successfully: “Empathy. Education. Experience. ‘That’s what allows you to find your pathway through this complex world'” – Read more about Amy’s Keynote address on the University’s website.
We are excited to announce that we are now members of the U.S. Water Partnership! We’re looking forward to collaborating on water resource management tools in the Lake Tanganyika Basin, and working towards a water-secure world. We’ll be sharing information on the USWP information portal, so stay tuned for updates!
Population data at Kabumbe Health Center
Data collection is absolutely vital to our work– it is how we build a greater understanding of the challenges and barriers in the Lake Tanganyika Basin so that we can better design interventions and serve the populations living there and address their needs.
Over the course of five days in October, members of our team visited eleven rural health clinics in Fizi, Nundu and Uvira Health Zones of DRC’s South Kivu territory serving 82,428 people. During these visits, our small team met with community members, local chiefs and health care workers (HCWs) in addition to gathering epidemiologic and technology survey data. The results were rich and fascinating, including showing direct correlations between security and public health, the effects of road access, hotspots of under-5 mortality, and the ingenious ways the local HCWs were finding solutions to some of their problems. Dr. Amy Lehman updated us from the field:
Kilomoni Health Center in Uvira
“Back in Uvira after a very, very interesting 4 days in Nundu/Fizi. Five more surveys to go, a trip to the Uvira port and then, back to Bujumbura. I never cease to be completely impressed by the dedication of Congolese health care workers. I met some absolutely terrific female community health workers and I can’t wait to work with them in the future!”
We plan to further explore the peninsula of Fizi Health Zone in 2015, where we will visit 10 health areas covering 100,000 people, which have no road or cellular phone access. Please consider supporting these efforts with a year-end gift.
We are so proud to announce that our Founder & CEO Dr. Amy Lehman is a Chicago magazine Chicagoan of the Year. Thank you to Chicago Magazine for this honor.
Watch Chicago Magazine’s video interview with Amy here. >>
LTFHC staff training health care workers on the EMR system in the DRC
In cooperation with our tech partner iilab, the LTFHC has developed a unique solution to bridge the communications gap in the Lake Tanganyika Basin through the creation of a high frequency (HF) radio network with a basic electronic medical record (EMR) specifically designed for remote and resource-poor settings. This system is the first of its kind in the region and facilitates data collection and sharing, as well as provides a giant leap forward in quality and safety of the health care delivered through reliable stewardship of patient records and health care worker decision support. More about the system >>
In October, the LTFHC team completed a successful EMR pilot in the DRC, including five EMR installations and three additional HF radio installations. As a result, these remote lakeside health centers are now far better connected by voice and data communication to the Ministry of Health and Kalemie General Hospital
Thanks to iilab and Team Rubicon for their participation in this outreach!
Women use bed nets to fish fry on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. We need further study to understand the full impacts of this practice
Last year, the LTFHC conducted a small, randomized survey on mosquito bed net misuse on the Tanzanian side of the lake. What we found was disturbing: 87% of respondents reported using a bed net to fish. We are pleased to announce that our findings were recently published in Malaria Journal.
This hypothesis-generating study has made it clear that more research is necessary. In 2015, we plan to conduct a larger follow up study, as well as test alternative tools for vector control. We look forward to learning more about how best to protect the people living in the Lake Tanganyika Basin (and other water based communities) from malaria and food insecurity, while maintaining the lake’s unique biodiversity.
Read the article in Malaria Journal here >>
We are so thrilled to announce that we have been selected as a Finalist for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge! This competitive prize awards one organization each year for their “game-changing solutions to solve humanity’s most pressing problems”. We are honored to be one of seven finalists in this year’s challenge.
Earlier this year we announced our new brand, WAVE, which encompasses our broadened scope of work in policy and advocacy, in addition to the programmatic work of the Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic.
With this in mind, Founder and CEO Dr. Amy Lehman has just launched “From Curse to Cure: The Impact of Energy Exploration & Production in the Lake Tanganyika Basin,” at the annual iPAD Oil and Gas Conference in Kinshasa, DRC, September 10th and 11th, 2014.
“From Curse to Cure” charts risks and rewards of the forthcoming oil boom in the African Great Lakes. The Lake Tanganyika Basin is used in the report as a lens to view the complex issues and development opportunities in Central and East Africa.
This report is the first of a series of publications on cross-sectoral collaboration, business and development opportunities, as well as best practices in the African Great Lakes region in general and the Lake Tanganyika Basin in particular. This project was led by the policy team at WAVE and in conjunction with its programmatic arm, the Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic, to highlight among other things, the vulnerabilities of one of the world’s greatest assets in the 21st Century: Water.
We encourage you to download our full paper. Further information may be found in our press release: New study charts risks and rewards of the forthcoming oil boom in the African Great Lakes
For a better understanding of why we initiated this scholarship on energy exploration and production in the basin, check out this interview with Amy.
Thank you for your continued support!!
Our programmatic team was hard at work last month conducting a facilities upgrade in Rukwa, Tanzania at Kirando Health Centre, the area’s main health care provider intended to serve roughly 250,000 persons. Kirando was in desperate need of infrastructural improvements, so our team installed a new and improved solar power system, constructed a well productive of clean, safe water and modernized the operating rooms.
During the upgrade, we worked closely with health care workers (HCWs) at this facility to take ownership of the new systems and equipment and also used this opportunity to retrain HCWs on LTFHC’s electronic medical record (EMR) system installed at Kirando and surrounding health centers earlier this year. We will be returning later this year to dig a new well and hook up the (repaired) plumbing pipes, which will complete this upgrade.
